Agronomic Biofortification through Integrated Nutrient Management on Maize (Zea mays L.) Hybrids

Background: Supplement of balanced nutrition is required for the growth and development of crops and humans, particularly essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. The application of mineral micronutrient fertilizers to soil or plant leaves to increase micronutrient content in edible parts of crop. Therefore, this study is focused to evaluate the effect of agronomic biofortification with different nutrient levels on maize. Methods: A field experiment was conducted on sandy clayey loam soil during the Rabi season of 2020-21 Perambalur, Tamil Nadu to study the effect of agronomic biofortification through integrated nutrient management for improving maize (Zea mays L.) yield and quality under Cauvery delta condition. Two hybrids in main-plots both, QPM and non-QPM were sown by direct method on ridges at a spacing of 60 x 20 cm under split plot design (SPD) with 6 treatments of nutrient management in sub-plot combination under three replications. Result: The results revealed that the nutrient level treatments containing 50% RDF through NPK + 50% RDF through FYM with Fe and Zn as foliar application @0.5% conc led to highest growth and yield attributes, grain yield (8.52 tha-1) and stover yield (10.35 tha-1) and also resulted in maximum crude protein content (14.93%), starch content (63.85 mg g-1), Fe (36.25 mg kg-1) and Zn (29.35 mg kg-1) in maize grain. It was observed that Agronomic biofortification through integrated nutrient management enhanced the vegetative growth and yield components of non-QPM hybrid, whereas it improved the grain quality content of the QPM hybrid.

Limnological changes and chironomid-inferred summer air temperature from the Late Pleniglacial to the Early Holocene in the East Carpathians

Here we provide the first chironomid record and associated summer air-temperature (TVII) reconstruction between ca. 16,800–9100 cal yr BP from Lake Saint Anne (SZA), situated in the Eastern Carpathians. SZA was formed by the youngest volcanic eruption of Ciomadul volcano at ca. 29,600 cal yr BP. Our main goals in this study are to test whether warming after Heinrich event 1 (H1; ca. 16,200 cal yr BP) had similar amplitude to the late glacial warming, while Younger Dryas (YD) summers remained relatively warm in this region of Europe. We found the most remarkable chironomid assemblage change with a TVII increase of ~3.5–3.8°C at ca. 16,350 cal yr BP at SZA, followed by another slight TVII increase of ~0.8–1.0°C at ca. 14,450 cal yr BP. Only very minor temperature variations were recorded between 14,450 cal yr BP and 11,700 cal yr BP, with an unexpected TVII decrease in the Early Holocene. Variations in water depth together with increasing analogue problems and paludification from ca. 14,200 cal yr BP onwards may have influenced the reliability of our paleotemperature record obtained from SZA. In addition, Sphagnum-indicated decreasing pH, and hence decreasing nutrient level, likely overrode the effect of summer air-temperature changes during the Early Holocene, and this may explain the bias in the chironomid-inferred summer air-temperature reconstruction in the Early Holocene section.

A Research on IOT Based Smart Automation Irrigation System

India is an agricultural country. 70% of people do this. The main requirement within the agriculture field is water and manpower. Nowadays the foremost problem lies in agriculture is water scarcity, manpower, funds, etc. To overcome these problems we've to develop an automation irrigation system using IoT. This technology is employed for creating systems automated using sensors like DHT11, Soil Moisture sensor, some hardware parts, and software. The PH sensor is additionally wont to analyze soil nutrient content present within the soil in real-time and therefore the PH sensor is employed to work out the Ph value of the soil. Monitoring of those provides the right fertility to the soil depending upon the soil nutrients. To provide quality crops supported temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and its nutrient level content and Ph. factor, it has also been maintained. The real-time result will be generated. The generated results PDF are going to be sent to the person through email or web SMS. The overall cost required should be low enough in order that every one can afford it.

Effects of catnip (Nepeta cataria L.) and Mexican sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia L.) density on growth, yield, and proximate composition of jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.)

Purpose. Jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.) is a mucilaginous vegetable and fiber crop cultivated in the tropics, where catnip (Nepeta cataria L.) and Mexican sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia L.) are common weeds. Hence, the study investigated the growth, yield, and nutrient level of jute mallow in weed-free, catnip, and Mexican sunflower environments. Methods. The study involved two screen-house experiments in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with six replications. The treatments were 0 (control), 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 weed plants per pot in both experiments. These are 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 weed count per square meter equivalent, based on the surface area of the pots used. Mexican sunflower and catnip plants interacted with jute plants in the first and second experiments, respectively. Growth parameters of jute mallow were recorded weekly from 5 to 8 weeks after sowing (WAS), and harvesting was done at 8 WAS. The proximate composition of jute was evaluated using standard procedures outlined by AOAC. The data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), and means were separated using Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at P < 0.05. Results. Catnip and Mexican sunflower negatively impacted the morphological features of jute mallow from 100 plants per square meter upwards. Catnip and Mexican sunflower, at 300 and 100–500 plants per square meter, respectively, reduced the dry weight of jute mallow. The crude protein content of jute mallow was also lessened by Mexican sunflower at some point. Conclusions. The study recommends that the density of catnip and Mexican sunflower plants interacting with jute mallow should be maintained below 100 plants per square meter to prevent yield loss.

Screening of Rice Varieties based on Remodeling of Root Architecture Linked to Enhanced Phosphorus Transporters and Ethylene Signaling for Better Phosphorous Acquisition under Limiting Conditions

Root architectural modifications in response to altered nutrient level can be used as selection marker for better adapted rice varieties. In this study, we screened six local rice varieties commonly grown in Pakistan, using their unique root architecture and several molecular markers to identify best adapted local variety under phosphorus limiting conditions. Our data showed that rice variety with significant changes in its three-dimensional root architecture system (RSA) and enhanced expression of phosphorus transporters (OsPT2, OsPT4 and OsPT6) is the best variety to handle stress as compared to other varieties. Along with development of screening strategy/method, our data provided evidence that phosphorus starvation leads to upregulation of stress hormone ethylene, which regulates root elongation and root hair development therefore facilitating root architecture modification. We then further checked, how to mitigate or enhance phosphorus starvation responses by application of hormones exogenously, our results showed that ethylene application/treatment enhances phosphorus starvation responses, whereas cytokinin on the other hand reverses deficiency effects which implicates hormonal cross talk is key to modulate P-deficiency responses in rice. This study provides an easy and quick method of analysis of root architecture as physiological marker for rice screening and improve crop yield by selecting best adapted variety for P deficient soils. In future, detail study for understanding phytohormone mediated transcriptomic changes in response to nutrient deficiency and in correlation with physiological response will help to select better adapted varieties that will eventually result in increase of rice yield.

Crop and Fertilizer Prediction based on Soil Nutrients using IOT

The project is motivated from general observation on the following facts in Indian agriculture system. Traditionally, in order to know the fertility of the soil, farmers collect soil samples from their field and send it to nearby soil testing laboratories. These laboratories use primitive methods which take a long time to obtain results. In addition to that, soil nutrients also change over time. The proposed method efficiently estimates soil nutrients based on a sensor network that helps in predicting suitable crops for that soil under test. The sensors of the hardware kit collect nutrient level from the soil sample and data is stored through Raspberry-Pi. Based on the values obtained from the sensor the system makes predictions using the classification algorithms. Subsequently a text message is sent to the registered farmer with the best crop predicted. Based upon the suggested/desired crop the fertilizer is suggested. The same is also displayed on a web page.

Yield potential of linseed genotypes influenced by nutrient levels under rainfed condition in Vidarbha region

All India coordinated Research Project on linseed conducted a field experiment on Agriculture Farm, College of Agriculture, Nagpur under Dr. PDKV, Akola, Maharashtra during Rabi Season of 2019-20 in Factorial Randomized Block Design with three replication. Three genotypes NL – 356, JLS-95, T-397 were tested with three nutrient levels i.e. 50 % RDF, 100% RDF and 150 % RDF. The result revealed yield potential of the entry NL-356 was 26% highest over JLS-95 and 13% more on T-397 under rainfed condition. However, the increase in nutrient level from 50 % RDF to 150 % RDF influence the growth and yield attributes which favours the increase in yield. Therefore, it is concluded that genotype NL 356 with 100 % RDF achieve higher growth rate i.e. plant height, number of branches as well as yield attributes number of capsules per plant, number of seed per capsule and highest NMR and B:C ratio.

Change of the structure and assembly of bacterial and photosynthetic communities by the ecological engineering practices in Dianchi Lake

Background: Cyanobacterial bloom challenges the aquatic ecosystem and ecological restoration is an effective approach for cyanobacterial bloom control, but the change of aquatic community after ecological restoration is still unclear. Dianchi Lake is a eutrophic lake with frequent cyanobacterial blooms in China, and recent ecological restoration projects in Caohai (north part) have a satisfactory performance. In this study, we collected 249 water samples at 23 sites from Dianchi Lake to explore the relationships between water physiochemical variables and aquatic microbial communities.Results: Water physicochemical variables in Waihai (south part) intensively changed along time, whereas those in Caohai did not. Photoautotrophic communities were significantly divergent between Caohai and Waihai. Waihai had a lower diversity of photoautotrophic community, containing higher abundance of Cyanophyceae (89.9%) than Caohai (42.7%). Nutrient level and Cyanophyceae only exhibited strong correlations in Wahai (p<0.05). Redundancy analysis and microbial ecological network suggested that microbial communities in Caohai had a higher stability. Deterministic process dominated the microbial assembly (50-80% for bacteria and >90% for photoautotrophs), and particularly in Caohai.Conclusions: Our results unraveled that the structure and assembly of bacterial and photoautotrophic communities significantly changed after ecological restoration, offering valuable suggestions that photosynthetic diversity should be focused for other ecological restoration projects.